A Deep Dive into the Zen of Byung-Chul Han

Well friends, I did it again. I went all in on Byung-Chul Han! This amazing South Korean-born German Continential philosopher (phew, that's a mouthful) lowered his Zen-inspired hand down into the pit of overworking that I was trapped in today and showed me a way out!
By which I mean:
His book "The Burnout Society" is a brilliant deconstruction of our late capitalism/neoliberal society and the unspoken assumption that if you're not working yourself to death you must be some kind of LOSER!
Byung-Chul Han sneaks Buddhist ideas of "emptiness" and "friendliness" into his sophisticated takedowns of Western thinkers like Foucault and Hegel, all while helping us see how living in a culture that demands we say yes -- yes to making more money, yes to becoming more materially successful, yes to fame, yes to toilet tweeting, yes to status, yes to more work, yes to less free time, yes to more ambition, yes to more EVERYTHING ... is creating a society of depressives.
We get so tired of having to continually "become ourselves" that we just collapse!
Anyway, maybe I was just feeling lazy today. But it sure felt good to walk away from my computer, pick up Byung-Chul Han, and dive into a brilliant and generous thinker who's on the front lines in the fight to cargo Zen Buddhism into contemporary Western philosophy.
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Link to PHILOSOPHIZE THIS vid on BCH: • Episode #188 Achievem...
Link to my other vid on BCH: • How to BEAT BURNOUT!
Intro: 0:00
Byung-Chul Han's Burnout Society: 00:56
Buh-Bye Foucault: 4:18
The Achievement Society: 7:31
No Longer a Society of "No": 8:38
The "Can Do!" Society: 10:26
The Disappearance of the Other: 14:45
Smartphone as Rosary: 19:28
The Philosophy of Zen Buddhism: 20:13
Buddhism V. Hegel: 21:45
The Crisis of Connection: 24:19

[@jethrobradley7850]

I have a nightmare that one day Andrew Huberman will discover the "Incredible benefits of Zen"

[@zenconfidential25]

may it NEVER be!!

[@EntertheGam3]

I literally just discover Byung Chul-Han. Out of all the video breakdowns on KZbin yours is the best. I really enjoyed your style. Really engaging. Thanks!!

[@zenconfidential25]

Glad you like them! Yeah, he's such an accessible and interesting thinker, provides me with some real hope.

[@paulengel4925]

I literally scan the library shelves for thin books! I am a big fan of thin books. Thanks for introducing this philosopher to me - mid watching your talk I paused to order some of his books through inter-library loan (best service in the world)

[@zenconfidential25]

You're so welcome! My friend, thin books are the best. I say this as a man writing a very thick one right now.

[@Riddlemewalker]

Thanks for introducing me to this philosopher. I see that achievement culture falling heavily on younger people, but also see it in myself. Lots to think about.

[@gregtry3767]

Great presentation Jack! I'm going to go out and get this book by Byung-Chul Han

[@zenconfidential25]

Good choice!

[@muho]

Great, thank you!

[@zenconfidential25]

You are welcome! Thank you 🙏🏿

[@ninasnow9055]

no! :) that is so interesting... thanks again.Another helpful video and new perspective for me.

[@zenconfidential25]

My pleasure!

[@hoogreg]

Thank you, that's fascinating.

[@zenconfidential25]

You're very welcome!!

[@ABurgess]

Excellent work, thanks. Also, who painted the piece behind you?

[@zenconfidential25]

Thank you, my friend! That piece was painted by my girlfriend, I love her art.

[@ABurgess]

@@zenconfidential25 it is excellent as well.

[@nubedelluvia1884]

Very good video. I read almost everything by Byung Chul Han. He brings out a book every year. In German. As I feel I am back to the market place, what I see is that the supposed "Eras" either live together, or are still alive. That of Foucault and the disciplinary society , that of the postmodernists, that of destructuralism....and after the supposed pandemic, the digitized return to corporate and totalitarian oligarchic feudalism. Yes, I am a philosopher, or rather, I was ..... At street level you run into everything, but not of that. At least in my neighborhood. "They live together", but not as we think. The thing is much cruder and uglier. According to socialization. The academics as always making their careers, and trying to follow the guidelines of power...a power incarnated in people and institutions....the so-called middle class that today limps weakened....there are exceptions.... To the workers, and we are all workers, in a certain way brutalized...there is no longer enough money to live.... with two or more jobs... Blah blah blah administrators, politicians .... I save you those paragraphs.... Working conditions have changed and not for the better...more than 35% of the population is left out.... Just because Byung chul han is doing well, and I am glad, does not mean that the environment around him is as he says. Perhaps in the analytical world of created ideas and narratives that arise from the purposely created society of consumption and propaganda of capitalism and neoliberal economic interests.... Because from what is said to the fact that is talked about, it goes a long way. And there if it helps in zazen...and the creativity that comes from being alive. .

[@zenconfidential25]

Thank you, much truth here.

[@LONDONFIELDS2001]

Byung Chul Han is absoloutely fundemental. Fundemental. His work and thought is very important to western buddhists, too. Whose practice often is just an exercise in sbjectivity with no context. They have forgetten the "interdependancy" part.

[@zenconfidential25]

Perfect, yes. Thank you.

[@cesarebianchi1799]

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@joeg3950]

BCH is fascinating. Hegel is flawed - Heidegger more so. Sartre is cool but not necessary. One of the things that I think that may augment BCH is the theological notion of kenosis - constant pouring forth. It’s a greek term that when applied to Christian theology is Christ’s love for the world constantly empties - pours forth. It would be interesting that through the emptiness and groundless that ensues, enables a constant pouring forth of the encounter and affirmation of the other without negating différrance (Derrida). I ended with Derrida because I think he would agree with BCH on a few things. Différance being an important notion to consider. In realizing BCH’s point, I think it may be important to consider that we cannot semantically reduce the other. To realize his point, we are a myriad of points on Indra’s Net, each one as full of the Universe as the next, constantly changing, emerging, and grand. Well, that’s my take. Time to sleep.

[@LONDONFIELDS2001]

oh man I love that description you use for the use of philosophy, "for conventional thought to catch up to teh present." that's such a great way of putting it. Philosophy at it's finest really does chop away so much, burns through it, leaves you standing there amazed. Baudrillard is another recent example. And yes BCH. Heidegger too is one of the greatest Zen masters to have lived imo. Shame about the nazi shit tho :(

[@zenconfidential25]

Heidegger is an interesting one!! Apparently his lectures were absolutely mesmerizing. Imagine if they'd had KZbin back then.

[@LONDONFIELDS2001]

@@zenconfidential25 have you ever read Emil Coiran? Electrifying. Truly

[@nubedelluvia1884]

Foucault examines the belief complexes as they characterize historically different cultural practices and are used for social control. The big theme is the historical nature of the power structure. I do not share the idea that Foucault's analyzes are not valid today. The world of Western and Asian human societies today maintains these structures. And the historical analysis he makes of these power structures is very interesting and insightful. As for Heidegger, there is no need to be afraid of him because of his closeness to those who were in power at the time. “Being and time” and “what is thinking” are conscientious works and in a certain way a logical return to the question of being. From Descartes “cogito ergo sum” to Derrida… it is the history of “Reason” /Der Vernunft. One leaves the world of religion (relegere, relegare which means to collect or group, and gather but can also come from religio, which means scruple)... and one lives without that other human dimension. Which doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But since Wittgenstein we can no longer talk about that world or dimension. So the last few centuries have been about being in Plato's cave elucidating the world of ideas and power. And out there the life that does not wait. And what does this have to do with the practice of zazen???? For the first time, the ideas of “not-knowing” and “emptiness” are coming to fruition… and that is the scoop… they behave, so to speak, incomprehensibly…and intangible. That's the good news.

[@zenconfidential25]

Awesome. Thank you

[@nubedelluvia1884]

@@zenconfidential25 ❤

[@lloydy3250]

This sounds like a misapprehension of both Foucault and Hegel to me, but I appreciate being introduced to Byung-Chul Han. The first part sounded awesome, but toward the end it declined into the standard Buddhist cliche. Still, sounds like he's worth a look. 👍

[@zenconfidential25]

Yeah, his critique of Foucault and Heidegger is more interesting to me than his Buddhist insight.

[@kevindole1284]

The friendliness of Buddhism is why it makes for such ineffective politics. When you abandon yourself and open it to the influence of other you become less able to hold to the fixed views necessary for political projects. Inversely, the unfriendliness of politics explains why they can render Buddhist organizations so ineffective at actually teaching Buddhism.

[@christianveith7953]

Maybe we can start smaller. What is laid out in this video and what B-C-H says is great for working in a team, especially for leading a team. If that scales to a political project is anyone's guess, as the character traits needed to bring a political project to fruition usually involve a lot of Ego.

[@9000ck]

I think the push of Byung Chul Han's philosophy is to give the finger to 'effectiveness.' The constant demand to be 'effective' and efficient is making us sick. And probably accounts for why politics is going completely freaking incomprehensibly insane.

[@kevindole1284]

@@christianveith7953 I have some low level political involvements. I try to bring what I have learned of the dharma my political activities. I think that "egolessness" can be very good at consensus building, facilitating meetings, etc. because it helps with communication between groups. So I think that some Buddhist principles are very useful in political organization, and are useful at the tactical level. I don't think that these same tactics scale in utility to the strategic level.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

There is a German bonmot: "If the wise always give in, the fools will rule!"

[@wellthlab-hi4qx]

post capitalism? neo liberalism ok but post capitalism? could you unpack that as that seems at most hypothetical?

[@theIdlecrane]

I have through my readings find that there is a path to Zen, and this is the lost path of Communion with God’s Creation. Think about it.

[@zenconfidential25]

I'm on it!

[@wellthlab-hi4qx]

do you think this speaks for cultures outside the west ? and western affluence? kinda seems this framing is also very pre covid - consider folks saying no,now, leaving work not going back; minimalism, slow living - so ya feels very specific in terms of affluence privilege - and can you really still see this no foreigner no other? in the dehumanization of people in gaza in russia in religion? i'm ready to call bs right now given what we see daily now. how many impoverished of non western states are self-branding on instagram? are on facebook? what do you think? a path out may be eat your social wheaties -engage/ listen to another person whom you find uncomfortable? get off twitter for a day or a week? and isn't zen about no self/other and no you're not screaming at anyone if yelling on the net - no one is there - just digital bits - that's the crazy is it not? yelling as if someone is there and no one comes back - so crazy is what must happen living in a hall of mirrors?

[@zenconfidential25]

Han is best understood for me as a cultural critic in a Western society where culture has overthrown nearly all other societal influences, so he's like Guy Debord or McLuhen.

[@gunterappoldt3037]

Han´s booklet seems to me rather a pamphlet, not a systematic study - a bit like scrabbling some "memos" together into the bigger picture of a large-size essay, - or like an impressionistically colourful collage. Taken as an essay on "central aspects of the contemporary meaning-crisis", or so, Han´s critique seems strongly to overlap with Dr. Möller´s (YT-channal "Carefree Wandering") time-diagnosis on rampant "profilicity", indeed - and yes, there seems to lie some truth in it, if I may say so. Now, these are some more concrete problematic points, in my view: a) Hegel couldn´t positively know much about Buddhism. Information in Europe on "Eastern Wisdom School" were still very scarce during his time. aa) Taking a deeper dive, I imagine that we even could find - "technically" speaking - quite a many overlappings between the Hegelian and the standard/average Buddhist world-design(s). b) Even the slightly later born Schopenhauer, who called himself one of the first European "Buddhaisten", - irony of history - mistook an Arabian/Persian translation of the Upanishads for original Buddhist teachings. c) The grumpy old man from the Schwarzwald, Martin Heidegger, is imo often underrated und misunderstood. Didn´t he already talk of the "Gestell", which I interpret quite literally (albeit not totally corret): Western-style (post-)modernism - with shows some marks of an ideology, at least in the less philosophical versions, - often regards "our world" just as not much more than a huge supermarket, with "all kinds of things (people included) ready at hand". d) The "World of Buddhism" houses very different creatures - its often suggested homogeneity seems to me rather an "ideal-type" (Max Weber). e) Taking history as a kind of lithmus-test, - while trying to compare/contrast "real-types" and "ideal-types" with each other, - Buddhism didn´t, all it all, really fare that well, to be honest (and I did some studies in this field). f) Han should take, among other things, a sharper look into the methodological design, namely how to "harmonzie" said real-types and ideal-types, if I may say so. g) This does not stand against the attempt, to explore future potentials - starting now - of the good old "Zen-Shop", as founded some 1500 years ago. Yes, it´s an exciting topic, worth more intenive study, therefore this relatively extensive commentary. -Greetings from the parochial fields of Germany to (hopefully) felix Austria @@zenconfidential25

[@zenconfidential25]

So much here, thank you Felix.